STREAM: These New Puritans – Field of Reeds

Generally speaking (or at least, in my mind), there appears to be two sorts of people – those who didn’t hear These New Puritans’ 2010 probable-classic ‘Hidden’, and those who wanted to take it to one side and make the kind of gruesome love usually reserved for dimly lit back rooms in record stores. Such was the outright beauty of that record, all clattering percussion, booming soundscapes and fantastically beautiful orchestral sections, that it even managed to scoop the NME’s Album of the Year award in 2010, proving that even amongst the desperate pleas echoing throughout the sinking ship of old media, Hidden sounded pretty brilliant.

We can thank the passing of time, then, that the group have gathered up the pieces required to release a new record, one featuring a Magnetic Resonator Piano, a Harris Hawk, several panes of smashed glass and an entire orchestra to call their own. Ultimately, it’s a thing of rare beauty, toning down the heavily beat based song writing found on their prior recordings in favour of a more orchestral, plaintive recording. You can hear it in the widget above, or purchase it here.